In the 2008 elections, Obama rode on a wave of anti-Republican and anti-Bush sentiment. He promised ‘Change we can believe in’ and a lot more. Four years down the line, no other president has let his country down as much as he has. The unconstitutional Acts like the Patriot Act which was passed by Bush was not only left untouched, but more and more liberties are being undermined. To top them all, Obama has even signed the National Defense Authorization Act, the most unbelievable assault on human freedoms, allowing the Armed Forces to detain an individual indefinitely without trial. Both Republicans and Democrats have participated in destroying the uniqueness of the USA and all that it stands for.

Enter Ron Paul, the only man capable of overthrowing this grime-filled leaking bureaucratic machine that now passes off as the Federal State. A determined, intelligent, consistent, honest, and sincere 76-year old Libertarian obstetrician, Dr Paul has served as a Republican Representative from Texas for 12 terms. No other American has fought as much as he has to defend the constitutional values of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. His voting record in the House of Representatives is a testament to this fact. He favors a limited government as enshrined in the Constitution, a return to the non-interventionist foreign policy as espoused by the Founding Fathers, eliminating the Federal Reserve and the use of gold and silver as money instead of the current fiat money.

For years, Dr Paul has slowly but surely built his own following. In the 2008 Republican Primaries, the world saw the power of the Ron Paul campaign when Paulites used the rules of the primaries and conventions to win delegates. Although his 2008 campaign fizzled out, this time Dr Paul has come back with vehement force. Romney seems to be on track to become the Republican nominee, but the Paulites are not going to give in. He has done so well in the past one month that the mainstream media which used to ignore him before and label him a ‘crank’, is now afraid of him and is pulling every string to ensure that his image is tarnished. Despite all this, Paul is gaining ground.

The Republican primary process is very complicated. Each State is assigned a certain number of delegates to the Republican National Convention (RNC) based on the number of Congressional Districts and other factors. This year, there will be 2286 delegates at the RNC at Tampa, Florida in August. The candidate who wins 1144 (50% +1 = 2286/2 +1) votes from these delegates would win the nomination. In every state, there is either a primary or a caucus, where the voters choose their candidate, and the polls show who “won” that contest. But after the poll comes the most important part. The die-hard fans of the candidates attend the numerous conventions which decide who the delegates will be. According to rules varying from State to State, some delegates would be bound to vote at the RNC for the candidate who won the poll; other delegates would be unbound and are free to vote for whoever they want. However, after the first vote at the RNC, the bound delegates would also become unbound, and assuming the nominee hasn’t been selected yet, the voting would continue till a candidate appears with required number of delegate votes to clinch the nomination. These delegates also help in giving their preferred candidates prime-time slots for their speeches, and can tweak the Party platform to better represent the voters.

So far, the Romney campaign has spent large amounts of Wall Street cash and has won most of the primaries. He has the support of all the Establishment Republicans and the mainstream media. He has a large number of bound delegates (according to some estimates crossing 950 including yesterday’s primaries). Dr Paul has only around 90 delegates, and seems to be losing massively. But here’s the catch. Paulites have won the plurality of delegates in states like Minnesota and Maine, and seem set to do the same in Iowa, Louisiana and Washington. In Massachusetts, Romney’s home State, Ron Paul has won the majority of delegates despite them being bound to vote for Romney. It is the same scenario in Nevada too. In some States, Paulites have elected some of their own to important State-level Party posts. The campaign has also inspired a lot of local candidates for the posts of Representative and Senators in the Congress.

Dr Paul is the only man capable of doing what it takes to clean up DC, and remove the insane amount of money that plays such a big role in politics. Romney is just Obama with a Republican tag. If the USA must truly change and go back to its principles and values, Ron Paul remains its only hope.